Pondering Proverbs - Discipline (17)

 

“A rebuke goes deeper into one who has understanding than a hundred blows into a fool.” Proverbs 17:10.

 

What has been your experience with the truth of this verse? Can you relate to it? Do you have your own story to tell about one part of this verse? About both parts? Have you played the role of “one who has understanding”? Have you played the part of the fool?

 

I confess that I have played both parts, I know what it is to be the fool who receives a hundred blows and who yet still does not “get it.” By God’s grace, I have also come to know the deep but redeeming pain that pierces into the depths of my being. While I hope that I shall never play the fool again, I can’t be sure; I can trust God, I can pray for mercy, I can hope in Him, but I can’t be sure.

 

Frankly I think not being sure, in this case, is a good thing for me. I am reminded of Paul’s words, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall” (1 Cor. 10:12). The context of this verse is temptation, and while there is the assurance that God will provide “a way of escape” (1 Cor. 10:13), I need God’s mercies to protect me from my arrogance, to help me see and sense danger, and to keep me clinging to the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ.

 

You see, I know that in playing the fool I have been oblivious to “a hundred blows.” In retrospect this seems incredible, for the stupidity and evil and toxicity of my sin and wickedness are so very apparent to me today – they make me sick deep within myself – but at the time I was so entrenched in my sin and foolishness (and I use the terms “fool” and “foolishness” in the Biblical sense – which is of a person enmeshed in sin and evil and the way of death) that I refused to see, I rejected, the discipline of God and what was just plain common Biblical sense. Thankfully, as the prodigal son in Luke 15, even though I was eating pig’s food, the call of my Father brought me back home.

 

Dear friends, I know what pig’s food tastes like and I’d rather not eat it again. How stupid we are to hire ourselves out to serve the unclean!

 

I am reminded of dear Peter, who said to Jesus, “Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!” (Luke 22:33). Yet Peter vehemently denied Jesus three times...but what then?

 

“The Lord turned and looked at Peter…and he [Peter] went out and wept bitterly.” (Luke 22:54 – 62).

 

Might it not be that as we transition from being oblivious to our Lord’s warnings and corrections, to living as we were meant to live, in intimacy with Him, that times come when simply the look of our dear Lord Jesus is enough to convict us of our sin and foolishness?

 

Notice that I wrote “times,” because it may not be that a “time” comes when a look is all it will take, it may be that we forget that look and must need be reminded of it many times – what do you think?

 

In Galatians Chapter 2 we see that our Lord rebuked Peter through Paul in front of the entire church; and to God’s glory and Peter’s credit, Peter accepted Paul’s rebuke – otherwise there would have been a split in the church and, I think, the history of the Church would have been sadly different. My own sense is that this was not easy for either Paul or Peter, but Paul loved our Lord and his brethren enough to do something, to rebuke Peter in front of the church, and Peter loved our Lord and his brethren enough to accept the rebuke. How much do we truly love our Lord Jesus and one another?

 

As I write this I am thinking of a dear dear grandmother, a saint in our Lord, who once shared with me how, as she looked back over her life, that she saw how she could have treated others better than she did – the Lord was convicting her and purifying her.

 

In my own life the discipline of the Lord, the conviction of my sin and foolishness and narcissism, cuts deeper than it ever has – and the scapple is razor sharp (Heb. 4:12). I see things today that I had not seen before, and I see things that were once blurry with refined vision – a vision both clear and painful – a vision that drives me to the Christ of the Cross. It often only takes the look of our dear Lord Jesus to shame me and put me on my face before Him. And, I suppose unlike times past, I cannot run from Him, for once the conviction of the Holy Spirit beings its work I am caught in a net, in a trap, and struggle as I might, until I surrender to Him I will have no release, no freedom.

 

There are moments when the Bible is to me as the prophet Nathan was to David, “You are the man!” What to do? Why we run to Jesus, we run to His Cross, we run to Psalm 32 and Psalm 51 and Romans 4:1 – 5:11, we run to 2 Corinthians 5 – and we grab hold of Jesus and we sense the arms of Jesus surrounding us – and we know that we are forgiven and safe in His arms.

 

And may I say, and may you believe, that there is no safer and warmer place than being in the arms of Jesus Christ.